00:00:00
in 2023 an unthinkable thing happened
00:00:03
Apple took Mac safe one of their
00:00:04
proprietary technologies that they
00:00:05
formerly locked millions of people into
00:00:07
a cozy wall garden with and they donated
00:00:10
it to the wireless power Consortium this
00:00:12
created a new open standard called ch2
00:00:15
that pretty much any brand could use
00:00:16
more or less for free achieving cross
00:00:18
compatibility with Apple's massive and
00:00:20
massively lucrative Max safe ecosystem
00:00:23
now chi1 was already the most popular
00:00:25
wireless charging standard for phones of
00:00:27
old Brands and with the new generation
00:00:29
most of the magnetic self alignment
00:00:31
smart Communications and the higher 15 W
00:00:33
charging limit from Max saafe would
00:00:35
become part of the standard to there was
00:00:37
a huge wave of publicity and loads of
00:00:39
expectations for what many called the
00:00:40
Mac save for Android and yet almost 2
00:00:43
years later only a single model from a
00:00:45
relatively small manufacturer adopted it
00:00:48
this is a pretty cool model for sure but
00:00:49
the rest of the industry is curiously
00:00:51
missing rumors of Samsung's s24 series
00:00:54
or Google's pixel 9 series having ch2
00:00:56
all proved to be wrong when when asked
00:00:58
the Google representative even bizar
00:01:00
said that quote there were no tangible
00:01:01
benefits to switching to ch2 for the
00:01:04
pixel 9 I've long been fascinated by
00:01:06
this mystery like why is ch2 adoption so
00:01:08
slow is Chu not good in some way and why
00:01:11
did Apple give away the chu standard for
00:01:13
free here's what I
00:01:15
[Music]
00:01:19
found insta 360 sponsored a segment of
00:01:22
this video well the only phone models on
00:01:25
the market right now that officially
00:01:26
support ch2 are the hmd skyline and
00:01:29
iPhone models after with the 12 series
00:01:30
the situation with chargers and power
00:01:32
Banks is quite the opposite every major
00:01:35
Charger brand from anchor to Nomad or
00:01:37
eof flow to ugreen has ch2 models across
00:01:40
the board and to first see if maybe the
00:01:42
technical implementation is what's
00:01:43
holding ch2 back I decided to test a
00:01:45
bunch of these Chargers and right away I
00:01:47
found some things that were a little bit
00:01:48
counterintuitive charging an iPhone 16
00:01:50
Pro Max all Chargers were remarkably
00:01:52
consistent on the wied ones I could
00:01:54
measure how much power the Chargers took
00:01:56
as an input and each model I tested hit
00:01:58
around 18 to 19 watt at Peak ch2 is
00:02:01
rated to Output 15 watts so assuming
00:02:04
that there's some loss in the conversion
00:02:06
from the input to the output this means
00:02:07
that all Cheeto compatible charges that
00:02:09
I tested could consistently hit this
00:02:10
peak as expected with the iPhone and the
00:02:13
charge curve looks pretty typical as
00:02:14
well with maximum speeds at first and
00:02:16
then a pretty gradual slowdown later on
00:02:19
the phone got a little hot at 41° C or
00:02:21
about 106 Fahrenheit at Peak but that is
00:02:24
perhaps not too alarming given that the
00:02:26
magnetic alignment helps to keep the
00:02:27
coils properly aligned for good
00:02:29
efficiency this this all makes sense and
00:02:31
so here you might say hey ch2 as a
00:02:32
standard totally works and indeed if you
00:02:34
have an iPhone probably does at least on
00:02:36
the ones that I tested but with the
00:02:38
skyline things get a little bit less
00:02:40
consistent not a single one of the
00:02:42
Chargers here managed to maintain the
00:02:43
advertised power draw of f or over 15
00:02:46
watts for more than a few seconds The
00:02:48
Nomad stand came closest which generally
00:02:50
settled around drawing 11 to 13 Watts
00:02:53
that is a third less than the iPhone at
00:02:55
its peak though looking at the charging
00:02:56
curves we can see that while the iPhone
00:02:58
initially outperforms the skyline pretty
00:03:00
obviously which by the way has almost
00:03:02
the exact same size battery the skyline
00:03:04
Almost Doesn't slow down at all until
00:03:05
the very end so the overall speed
00:03:07
difference is fairly negligible also
00:03:09
because the skyline doesn't have the
00:03:11
full speed boost in the beginning it
00:03:12
stays a bit cooler never going past 39°
00:03:15
beside the Nomad stand the U green Uno
00:03:18
and the anchor Mago power bank came
00:03:20
pretty close but were a little bit
00:03:21
slower in my testing for a jointed
00:03:23
second place while all the other
00:03:24
chargers typically settled at around 9.6
00:03:27
WTS of peak power draw that is pretty
00:03:29
much High of what those same Chargers
00:03:31
manag to Peak at with the iPhone so yeah
00:03:33
I'd say with the hmd the speeds are a
00:03:35
little bit all over the place and
00:03:36
depending on which exact model you get
00:03:37
you might actually get something that is
00:03:39
noticeably slower than what you'd get on
00:03:41
the iPhone but I'd say the standard
00:03:43
overall still kind of works the magnetic
00:03:45
mounting is much nicer than having to
00:03:47
fiddle with alignment every time the
00:03:49
temperatures are fine so efficiency
00:03:50
should be okay and getting a full charge
00:03:52
in a bit over 2 hours is perhaps not
00:03:53
groundbreaking but not too bad either
00:03:56
also ch2 has a significant cost benefit
00:03:58
versus max saave while Max saafe
00:04:00
accessories have to be certified by
00:04:02
Apple and companies have to buy the
00:04:03
maxafe module from Apple itself ch2
00:04:06
devices only need a WPC certification
00:04:08
and the module can be made by anyone
00:04:10
this means that many companies
00:04:11
reportedly save $9 per device on average
00:04:14
during manufacturing which is
00:04:16
significant now of course Max safe has a
00:04:18
few of its own benefits as well first
00:04:20
the newest version of Max safe
00:04:21
introduced with the iPhone 16 series is
00:04:23
now rated for 25 watts which means it
00:04:26
should be noticeably faster than the
00:04:27
current ch2 standard and more in that
00:04:29
shortly second Max saafe also has this
00:04:31
little magnetic line at the bottom that
00:04:33
ch2 doesn't which leads to a slightly
00:04:35
more sturdy feeling alignment fun fact
00:04:37
Chu can even exist completely without
00:04:39
magnets in which case you just get the
00:04:41
15 Watts Speed but I haven't really seen
00:04:43
that in any device myself yet and third
00:04:45
maxfe accessories can communicate more
00:04:47
things with iPhones so they can for
00:04:49
example remember the last used standby
00:04:51
clock or they can display color matched
00:04:52
animations with Apple cases so those
00:04:55
should be considered but I don't think
00:04:56
any of them are big enough deal breakers
00:04:58
to be the sole cause of the lack of
00:05:00
adoption on Android a random paper I
00:05:02
found said that the max safe accessory
00:05:04
Market was at $9.5 billion last year so
00:05:07
I bet there would be plenty of people
00:05:08
paying for a slightly more commoditized
00:05:10
ch2 as well anyway moving on to the
00:05:12
phones the skyline thankfully has a
00:05:14
repairable design so we can easily pop
00:05:16
its back plate off to take a peek at its
00:05:18
module which seems fairly
00:05:19
straightforward here you can see a
00:05:21
little charging coil inside the black
00:05:23
sheet which I guess is graphite for heat
00:05:25
dissipation and all of this is
00:05:26
surrounded by some metal which would
00:05:28
house the magnet and also further
00:05:29
dissipates the Heat hmd and New current
00:05:32
a company that specializes in wireless
00:05:33
charging Tech both told us that the
00:05:35
implementation can be a little bit
00:05:37
tricky on the phones as it requires
00:05:38
working around magnetic and electrical
00:05:40
interference with the device plus hmd
00:05:42
having a sort of removable back also
00:05:43
means that they need some specialized
00:05:45
connectors but none of this seems like
00:05:47
black magic so technical challenges are
00:05:49
not likely to be the main reasons for
00:05:51
the lack of adoption either and instead
00:05:53
I've come up with the following
00:05:54
conclusions myself for Chinese Brands
00:05:56
ch2 might ironically be too slow many
00:05:59
brands like Oppo and OnePlus already
00:06:00
support something like 50 W wireless
00:06:02
charging with fans and whatnot while
00:06:04
Huawei even introduced 80 WTS in the
00:06:06
last few days 80 Watts G2 must seem
00:06:09
crazy slow in China also proprietary
00:06:12
fast charging standards have dominated
00:06:14
the Chinese market for a decade now so
00:06:16
slow standards just might not seem very
00:06:18
important to them as for the magnets
00:06:20
we've talked to a few Brands and most of
00:06:21
them seem to be keen on putting them
00:06:22
into optional cases for now the thinking
00:06:25
is basically to keep the thickness the
00:06:26
weight and the cost out of the devices
00:06:28
themselves and to just offer it as an
00:06:30
optional extra for those who want it hmd
00:06:32
told us that their implementation adds
00:06:34
about 0.7 mm of thickness which is not
00:06:37
bad but it's also clearly not
00:06:38
insignificant and meanwhile outside of
00:06:40
China Samsung and Google will be the two
00:06:42
obvious candidates for adoption and I've
00:06:44
heard the same rumor again and again
00:06:45
about both from multiple people in the
00:06:47
industry sure Chu is an open standard
00:06:49
and everyone I've talked to praised the
00:06:51
wireless power Consortium which develops
00:06:52
it as a pretty great standards body on
00:06:54
the surface every participating member
00:06:56
has one vote and the WPC says that the
00:06:58
brands are in a quote collaborative
00:07:00
competition but apple is clearly the
00:07:03
900lb gorilla in the room and their
00:07:05
power over this technology clearly makes
00:07:07
Samsung and Google a little bit
00:07:09
uncomfortable Apple joined the WPC in
00:07:11
2017 when they adopted the chi wireless
00:07:13
charging standard on the iPhone 8 series
00:07:16
and also the iPhone 10 before then the
00:07:18
market had various competing standards
00:07:20
but once Apple made its Choice Chi
00:07:21
basically became the de facto standard
00:07:23
almost overnight the WPC says that it
00:07:26
added almost 400 members within months
00:07:28
and the race was B basically over ever
00:07:30
since Apple has also taken the WPC way
00:07:33
more seriously than others not only did
00:07:35
they basically donate a lot of the cheat
00:07:37
to Tech themselves the WPC is also
00:07:39
currently chaired by an Apple employee
00:07:41
fed mishriki he was the co-founder of
00:07:43
wireless charging company power by poxy
00:07:45
which Apple acquired in 2017 and he
00:07:47
remains an Apple employee until today
00:07:49
while also chairing the WPC meanwhile
00:07:52
many of our interviewees also pointed
00:07:53
out that Apple just brings way more
00:07:55
employees way more suggestions way more
00:07:56
Technologies to all of the meetings and
00:07:58
everything else all the work group and
00:08:00
so they kind of get to set the agenda in
00:08:02
a way and the iPhone 16 series getting
00:08:04
25 W Max safe charging highlights a
00:08:07
particularly clever way of them exerting
00:08:09
control Apple can basically build the
00:08:11
next generation of the technology and
00:08:12
keep that exclusive through their own
00:08:14
phones for just long enough to make a
00:08:16
difference and then they eventually
00:08:17
donate most of that to dwpc so the new
00:08:19
stuff becomes the standard for everyone
00:08:21
else long term this way they can both
00:08:23
stay like a generation ahead of most
00:08:25
other companies while still influencing
00:08:27
the standard this setup also lowers the
00:08:29
incentives for Brands like Google and
00:08:30
Samsung to develop their own proprietary
00:08:32
versions when the Apple thing eventually
00:08:34
likely becomes the good enough standard
00:08:36
anyway a bunch of Industry insiders told
00:08:38
us that they thought Apple donated their
00:08:40
Tech to the WPC because they wanted to
00:08:42
avoid the EU eventually forcing them to
00:08:45
adopt some generic standards like they
00:08:46
did with USBC and the genius way that
00:08:48
they set things up means that they can
00:08:50
kind of hit two birds with one stone
00:08:52
they both get to claim that they are the
00:08:54
main contributor to the standard while
00:08:55
they can also make sure that they are
00:08:57
one step ahead of most of companies
00:08:59
pretty brilliant now importantly I'm not
00:09:01
saying that this is unethical voting
00:09:02
rids are fairly distributed across the
00:09:04
brands of course another brand could
00:09:06
outdesign and outspend apple and donate
00:09:08
their proprietary Tech to the WPC but
00:09:10
they're choosing not to that said the
00:09:12
reality here is that Apple has such a
00:09:14
head start and such Market power over
00:09:15
accessory ecosystems and such that for
00:09:17
now following their lead seems like the
00:09:19
most realistic option which Apple's
00:09:21
biggest competitors understandably just
00:09:23
aren't too enthusiastic about hmd told
00:09:25
us that they didn't have a problem with
00:09:27
this as they are a small brand while
00:09:29
Samsung and Google feel the need to play
00:09:31
defensively against Apple H&D just needs
00:09:33
to stand out in pretty much any way
00:09:35
possible and so being the first device
00:09:37
maker to adopt ch2 was a great way for
00:09:39
them to get people like you and I to
00:09:41
talk about them and to be fair I
00:09:42
eventually expect Samsung and Google to
00:09:44
adopt ch2 on their devices as well both
00:09:47
the s24 and the pixel 9 series were
00:09:49
rumored to support ch2 in some form
00:09:51
neither seems to get past five or six
00:09:53
Watts on that ch2 charger for me and
00:09:55
neither is officially ch2 certified so I
00:09:57
think these rumors were basically wrong
00:09:59
that said both already support 15wt
00:10:01
wireless charging or even faster just
00:10:03
with their own proprietary Solutions and
00:10:04
Samsung even has a G2 certified device
00:10:07
the Samsung Galaxy ring is the only
00:10:09
device listed on the website of the
00:10:10
wireless power consortion beside iPhones
00:10:12
and the hmd skyline that officially
00:10:14
supports the standard of course this is
00:10:16
referring to the case and sadly without
00:10:18
the magnetic alignments but this is a
00:10:20
first step G2 Chargers also really only
00:10:22
started becoming properly popular
00:10:24
halfway through this year and as you can
00:10:26
see they're still a little bit
00:10:27
inconsistent but as the ecosystem starts
00:10:29
building I think adding the magnets and
00:10:31
such to the phones will start making
00:10:32
more and more sense an Executive Vice
00:10:34
President at Granite River Labs who is a
00:10:36
very well-respected industry Insider
00:10:38
told us that 2025 was poisoned to be the
00:10:40
Breakthrough year for CHI with Magnetic
00:10:42
power profiles and smartphones meaning
00:10:44
that next year really should be the year
00:10:45
when all of this goes mainstream also CH
00:10:48
2.1 is just around the corner and my
00:10:50
guess is that this will be announced at
00:10:51
CES 2025 in just a few months 2.1 should
00:10:55
increase beeds which is supposed to
00:10:56
narrow the Gap with the iPhone 16 series
00:10:58
and that that should help with further
00:11:00
adoption okay and to finish you know I
00:11:03
live in Berlin right if you know the
00:11:04
city you might wonder how on Earth I got
00:11:06
this shot in a place where drones are
00:11:08
not allowed at all well I went up to the
00:11:10
one tall hotel around here and the trick
00:11:12
was to have a camera that can get
00:11:13
through the protective net that you
00:11:15
can't normally bypass that was no match
00:11:17
for my 3 m long invisible carbon fiber
00:11:20
selfie stick and the most creative
00:11:21
camera that I know the insta 360 X4
00:11:23
which you can now get with a Black
00:11:25
Friday deal this is a 360° camera that
00:11:27
can get you shots that almost no other
00:11:29
camera can I gave it to my girlfriend to
00:11:31
take on her holidays and she got some
00:11:33
really great boat shots again with the
00:11:34
invisible selfie stick so it kind of
00:11:36
looks like you're flying a drone we took
00:11:37
it with us when we went kaying on this
00:11:39
fantastic trip in the summer I pack it
00:11:41
with me every time I go on a nice bike
00:11:42
ride or generally anytime I do something
00:11:44
cool the camera can shoot up to 8K which
00:11:47
is a ton of resolution that lets you
00:11:49
crop in and reframe your shots after you
00:11:51
shot them however you like and all of
00:11:53
this is super easy to do on the mobile
00:11:54
app both on Android and on iOS you can
00:11:57
for example either tell the app to
00:11:58
automatically track subjects inside the
00:12:00
video or you can tilt and move your
00:12:02
phone around to select the parts that
00:12:03
you want to export really cool with the
00:12:05
Black Friday deal and my link below you
00:12:07
can now get 15% off the X4 and the first
00:12:09
10 buyers will also get an invisible
00:12:11
selfie stick for the next few days oh
00:12:14
and this shot this was taken on the
00:12:15
insta 360 go 3s the perfect tiny camera
00:12:18
for POV shots that I've also linked to
00:12:20
down in the description so check out the
00:12:22
Black Friday deals in my links and I'll
00:12:23
see you in the next video
